Sane's Top 133 Favourite Films

25. Dancer in the Dark (2000) - Lars Von Trier

Danish Musical
One of two films that I would consider the most emotionally devastating that I've ever seen (the other is still to come). The emotion in this film is generated by the truly astounding performance by Bjork. There may have been people who have acted better in a film but no one has ever generated empathy and emotion like she did here. Apart from Bjork there are also good performances from a bunch of Von Trier regulars like Catherine Deneuve and Stellen Skarsgard but it is Bjork that makes this a masterpiece.

Hm. I thought you had already done this recently and the thread was just getting bumped for whatever reason. Then I realized that was the Asian list whch was pretty cool so I decided I'd scroll through and check it out. Pretty good but Avatar?! Something went wrong there. Did you hit your head while entering the theater, or maybe eat some bad popcorn? Anyway, bumping The Only Son up my queue in response to this list. Will keep watching.

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"Don't be so gloomy. After all it's not that awful. Like the fella says, in Italy for 30 years under the Borgias they had warfare, terror, murder, and bloodshed, but they produced Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci, and the Renaissance. In Switzerland they had brotherly love - they had 500 years of democracy and peace, and what did that produce? The cuckoo clock."

What? Avatar? I missed that...

High and Low is great and Dancer in the Dark is on my watchlist!

While Bjorks character can make Dancer in the Dark very frustrating to watch, it is one of the most emotional film watching experiences I've had.

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I'd read all about Dancer in the Dark before I watched it and was sure there was no way it was going to get me. It got me all the same. One of the most devastating film experiences I've ever had. I sort of wanted to hate it and Von trier for being so dreadfully manipulative but I couldn't, just because it was at the same time so beautiful and horrible and completely unique. There's a difference between lazy manipulation in place of effort, but this film had effort and took risks and had raw performances and that's a completely different category of film. A really original musical as well, which I really appreciated.

Manipulation is an interesting thing in films. I feel like all films are somewhat manipulative in that the director always wants us to think or feel something but we all have a line and where that line is can change depending on how much work has been done to get us to care about the characters. Personally I feel like if the director has been lazy (as you said TN) then any amount of manipulation crosses the line (see War Horse) but if the story and characters have been given depth than almost no amount of manipulation is too much (see Schindlers List). I agree that DitD is exceedingly manipulative but Von Trier & Bjork did so much work to get to that point that it works incredibly well.

I was seriously thinking about nominating DitD for the now aborted Musical HoF. I think some people may never have forgiven me

If it didn't get aborted and everyone got to watch your nomination:

GBG's reaction = pure gold.

24. Boyhood (2014) - Richard Linklater

American Drama
For me this was an incredibly immersive and moving piece of cinema. The concept of shooting over 12 years to allow the actors to actually age worked incredibly well - using makeup (or different actors) to deal with aging in films is always a problem because even if it is done well you are still constantly reminded that you are watching a film but here there was a flow to it which allowed me to really remain focussed. There are a couple of flaws, one of which being that Ellar Coltrane became a worse actor as he got older, but overall I really bought into what Linklater was trying to achieve and really appreciated his focus on the day to day and avoiding the big moments - something that Ozu always did also.

Now you've piqued my curiosity. I'm gonna have to find this movie.

Still a quality list here, Sane.

Love the mix of underseen and mainstream movies, as I've pointed out before. You seem to have a varied taste, which is something I can relate to and respect. Can't wait to see how it continues from now!

23. Wuthering Heights (1939) - William Wyler

American Romance
Wuthering Heights is, in my opinion, the best story ever created - I absolutely adored the book and even as a kid I thought it was the most romantic thing I had ever read. I think it is the darkness that makes up a lot of the story that makes me love it so much. That love for the book was easily transferred to the movie because it so perfectly recreated the right tone. I even love the Kate Bush song!

Very high placement for Boyhood Sane. I liked it a whole lot. It felt like a very unique experience but was extremely engaging as well. nice choice.

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Letterboxd

Boyhood

I really like Wyler but Wuthering Heights was just ok for me.

22. Be With Me (2005) - Eric Khoo

Singaporean Drama
There are few films that I have watched in the last few years that have made me think as much as this one. Immediately after watching it I actually though it may have been the best film I'd ever seen. Obviously that's changed a bit but it is still an astounding movie. It has three stories of love running side by side with what is really a documentary about a deaf and blind teacher. The teacher, who inspired the movie, actually plays herself in the film - both talking about her real life and also interacting with the fictitious characters. It is simply an amazing piece of creativity from Khoo and what elevates it from being interesting to being great is that the three romantic stories all work incredibly well as Khoo uses various techniques to tell their stories - for example the story of the two teenage girls is pretty much told silently using text messages like intertitles. An underseen work of genius in my humble opinion.

I'm still following this, but I've not watched any of the entries since One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest.

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21. Dolls (2002) - Takeshi Kitano

Japanese Romance
You only have to look at that poster to see one of the reasons why I love this film - it contains some really beautiful scenes. This is another movie with three love stories running side by side - although I think all of the characters do cross each other's paths at certain points during the film. Kitano is perhaps best known for his crime and comedy films but I think his real talent is in creating touching human interactions. The main story in this is one of the most heartbreaking things I have ever seen and Kitano does a great job of delivering the emotion without going overboard. This is also one of the few films that he directed but doesn't act in. I really like Fireworks and Sonatine but this is the film of his that I really love.

Nuff said.

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Look, I'm not judging you - after all, I'm posting here myself, but maybe, just maybe, if you spent less time here and more time watching films, maybe, and I stress, maybe your taste would be of some value. Just a thought, ya know.

I didn't know what to expect with Boyhood, and I ended up absolutely loving it.

I've wanted to see Wuthering Heights for some time now, and I'm not familiar with the last two.